Arps & Co are dedicated to bringing a wide variety of fine art to as broad a public as possible.

We encourage and present programmes that aim to sustain, renew or improve the quality of artistic endeavour across cultures. With a focus on international and interdisciplinary projects, we are interested in the exchange of ideas and the broadening of perspectives, in fostering creative expression from the roots of the community to the heights of the artistic establishment.

In 1902, Wim Arps started Arps & Co in the Nobelstreet, The Hague. It became a very popular art gallery, purveyor to the Royal Household and a meeting place for contemporary artists. One hundred years later we renewed this initiative to gather fine artworks and foster creative endeavour, by creating a virtual meeting place at www.Arpsgallery.com.

01 May 2016: Ryuji Taira from Japan is going on tour in Europe: next stop MunichWe discovered Ryuji Taira at the Fotofever Artfair in Paris in september 2011. The opening of his first European solo-show was in September with us in Amsterdam. Silver Platina prints on exclusive Gmpi paper, that is prepared each sheet for around four years to achieve an ultimate quality. Now the body of works is going on. We are so proud of him! He will be back with us in 2017 and also with a masterclass about his techniques.
Links: ; see more

20 May 2015: Me, Myself and My WorldNew works by Astrid Ufkes in the window gallery in Amsterdam.Up till September st.
The subject of her photos arose from the concept that simple, everyday things around you – glasses, flowers, blades of grass, locks, gates, buildings and shoes – get a whole different meaning when you insert yourself into the photo in a certain way.

This is done by adding a figure; a silhouette. In every picture you see that silhouette somewhere, in duplicate; a larger and a smaller version. ‘The two silhouettes are related. I play with the figures until they are in a place which speaks to me.’

There is a difference between both silhouettes: one is Me, the other is Myself. Compare it with Freud’s Ich and Über-ich. The environment around the characters is My World.
Looking at yourself in your world
Links: ; more about the artist

18 Dec 2014: NAWAR HAIDARTHE BEACH exhibition in the windowgallery at Bonairestraat 1.
Nawar Haidar (from Syria) taught with the Faculty of fine arts in Damascus, and gained his Masters fine art 2009. He has exhibited in, Syria, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Georgia and London. For him painting is the moment of unconsciousness and the recovery of shock and love and knowledge in one moment. It is the realisation of the contrasts in which we live and he tries to draw with the pure spirit of childhood.

Nawar Haidar’s work is currently showing in our ART IN MIND exhibition until Sunday 8th June at the Brick Lane Gallery. The ART IN MIND exhibition programme is open to all artists from all over the world. To take part in any future exhibitions please contact info@thebricklanegallery.com

09 Dec 2014: Eduardo Romaguera 9.12 - 18.12come and view these delighted and intelligent pieces of works at the exhibition "the Rite of Spring".Including video installations.
Romaguera is painter, video artist, sculptor and poet and more, fantastic and full with imaginations.
Links: ; see more on the site of the artist

29 Nov 2014: Klementina Mancheva 29.11 till December 8Klementina Mancheva - Born in 1982 in Yambol she graduates fine arts . Later she gets bachelor degree in fashion design and master in graphic and interior design in New Bulgarian University, Sofia,Bulgaria, were she lives and works. Klementina has participation in several exhibitions. In 2012 she devotes herself to painting and especially the aquarelle magic.
"Painting is like illness, mania, as an escape , as a secret room where you hide ."
Links: ;

30 Oct 2014: momentum of chakra'sLots of color in the work of Adrie van der Ven. The colors in his abstract work stand for emotions and desires that may clash, but after that can also provide harmony.

Adrie van der Ven’s profession is therapist and aura reader. As a result, he works a lot with psychological themes. Van der Ven: ‘Many themes are not as purely individual as everyone thinks . Many suffer from speparation anxiety, fear of commitment, narcissism or other properties that can play a prominent role in one’s existence.'
Collision

Adrie van der Ven transforms things like uncertainty and excitement into colors. ‘I strive to represent the experienced tension in its essence. There can be a huge collision, and this you see back in the hue. In the same painting you may see a harmonious solution, but not always.

In his practice Adrie van der Ven meets almost daily these feelings and person’s properties. ‘It is life itself. I guide people and try to initiate processes of change. One of the means to do this is creative expression. A succesful painting or a piece of music is an added value in life. Art inspires people.’
Links: ; www.adrievdven.nl

23 Sep 2014: meet&greet with Masha GalaThis is an invitation to all artlovers.

we are very pleased to hear that will have the honour of the presence of the ambassador of Slovenia, mr. ROMAN KIRN at the gallery Arps&Co, window exhibition on Tuesday 23rd Sptember. at 4 p.m.Arubastraat 1.
The Solo exhibition by the Slovenian artist Masha Gala offers us a quick peek in her marvelous body of works.
It will be a mirror to the contemporary arts in Slovenia.
Links: ; http://www.masagala.eu/en/

31 Aug 2014: Esra Kizir Gokcen with METAMORPH-TRICKESRA KİZİR GÖKÇEN is from Istanbul. Funny, witty and very dedicated she made a complete new exhibition for her show in Amsterdam. Metamorph-trick is her way to express the fact that we all have many layers and under every layer there is one more, the tricky layer, the vision. Her work is inspired by the multi layered geographic and historical aspects of Anatolia, where she was born and is still living.
All things chain from the moment of realization among the layers of life. Remnants from the past change. Conditions of time and space morph everything. The illusions created by these movements tricks the eye. These illusions are what Esra Kizir Gökçen is trying to explain in the solo show named "metamorph-trick”. Hers is the eye being tricked.
Layers of time in movement are continuously morphing both past and the future creating our perceptions, fore sights, feelings. The past and thoughts about them, as well as premonitions of future and dreams all form different layers; telescoped, folded, morphed beyond generally accepted memories into colors and lines. Even though the work is considered done, it’s just starting. Changing our memories from top to bottom. Creating new knowledge. Moments in time and objects are falling apart and when they come together again they merge into new combinations. Metamorphed objects come into view, sometimes in an empty space, sometimes on a morphed ground, sometimes in a fantasy space and time zone. It is a game endlessly changing.
Portrayals of Earth may be under water like Atlantis, or may be a piece of land flying in the sky up to the emptiness of space. Figures are similar to earthly beings, mostly they are like creatures split and merged again inaccurately. The spatial elements are split and combined to create another world.
The artist emphasizes the metamorphosis and impossibility of regeneration of anything past. Pointing that all moments are new and the human perception is forever changed.
Her work also directs the viewer to our responsibility to nature through the clouds, trees, roots and all details symbolizing nature. The cloud and the tree show us about the circle of water, ergo life and the flow of past into future.
We can see the influence of Turkish classical painting, calligraphy and miniatures in the curved lines and symbols in Esra’s drawing. The technics used in her compositions and concepts contain the Metamorphic compositions that emerge as tricks.

10 Aug 2014: Xavier Yarto fusing modern art with pre-Hispanic artexhibition till August 31th in the windowgallery at Arubastreet 1.
Meet & Greet the artist on Tuesday August 12th,in the presence of the representative of the Embassy of Mexico.
The curator and her staff will cook for the artist, starting at 6 p.m.Snacks and drinks on the house: surprise fusion Dutch and Mexican.....hot stuff ;-)
About Xavier Yarto:
Native of Coyoacan locate at the south of Mexico City Xavier Yarto was born in 1972. Student of the Mexican Institute of Technologies Studies in Arquitecture (IMET) in Mexico City during 1995-1997.
Self-taught painter. Pioneer in the merge of the prehispanic art with contemporary art. Member of the Mexican Society of authors in Plastic Arts (SOMAAP). Member of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) in Paris, France.
Links: ; see more about the artist

02 Aug 2014: Erica Campanella extended till August 31stMeet and greet the artist on August 1st at the window gallery.The Dutch public has received the works of the painter Erica Campanella with great enthusiasm and admiration. Her virtuosity in portraying the devotion and love of the people around her in her day to day life. Love, friendship, devotion, the catholic, the buddhist, body language. One can find all this in a few brush strokes. Works mostly on copper. Shwoing light reflections and the absence of canvas in a very personal yet classic styling talking to the heart and archetypes of the observer. The exhibition will be party extended until August 31.
Highly recommended stuff!
Ella Arp

The artist was born in Milan in 1974.
She has been given a diploma by the academy of fine art of Brera moves freely among painting, restoring and decoration.
The call to meditation that the metropolis can unexpectedly offer is captured with extraordinary sensitivity by Cmpanella
Links: ; see more about the artist

09 Jul 2014: Kahlil Gibran and Adnan Yahya in window gallerya famous poem from Kahlil Gibran inspired Adnan Yahya from Jordania to 10 paintings for the Amsterdam public. Exhibition at Arubastraat 1. with films about the painter open July 9th - 21st.
the works are all calligraphy 60 X 60 cm oil color on thin wood, date of creation 2013.

Kahlil Gibran:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for
itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Links: ; see more

12 Jun 2014: Patricia LarocheMeet the fine artist in imaging arts at the arpsallery window. Open house from 6 till 9 p.m.
Patricia Nah (Roche) is a Singaporean who loves life, nature and the bright side of the human spirit.Widely travelled, schooled in the ministry of life and a veteran of TVC, documentaries and print production in Singapore and around SE Asia.In 2001, after a two year sojourn in Bali, Pat returned to Singapore with her family to rekindle her interest in creative arts and her other passion of holistic and energy healing.Over the past 12 years, Pat has been exploring a diversity of art forms and materials from Oriental to Western Art. Prints of her works will be available till the end of July 2014.
Links: ; see more on the website of the artist

22 May 2014: the Eagleman Story Monday May 26th meet and greetFine arts visionary whose work is found in private and public collections in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Painting and sculpture combine his rigorous modernist approach with classical disciplines to define two and three-dimensional images. Work emphasizes mythical narratives, spontaneous sophistication and dedication to technical excellence.

Since 1998 the scope of his work has grown to include large scale structures that utilize the tetrahelical concept of R. Buckminster Fuller that can be lit with fiber optics. These new forms are virtually unlimited in scale and form with both indoor and outdoor applications. In 2005, another sculptural innovation was introduced that resulted in the installation of RIBBONS, a painted steel sculpture in a building lobby that has, again, many indoor and outdoor applications.

Art and Science once were one. So the ancient people called this magic. Behind every great art and creation lays technology in order that the magic would happen. So, CREATE YOUR OWN MAGIC. That is the creed and belief of the Canadian drawing and sculpting artist Ivo Arnaudov.

Arnaudov is from Canada, his delightful works are made with sanguine and charcoal on polyester screen offering a view on both sides of the painting.
see more in the interview with Walter van Teeffelen
http://ifthenisnow.nl/nl/verhalen/world-fine-art-professionals-and-their-key-pieces-3-ivo-arnaudov
Links: ; see the artists site for video presentations

02 Apr 2014: Iris Low and Therese Lydia JosephTwo artists in Canada,Vancouver, one Dutch born, the other one original from Swiss, meeting in the field of their visual arts, both awarded in 2013 Don S. Williams Grant Award 2013,
is there something in their art that is connecting? Come and have a look for yourself.
Now on a great adventure back to their roots and showing their works in Amsterdam. Met and greet on Tuesday April 8th: Arubastraat 1, from 6 till 9, wraps and drinks will be served.
Links: ; see more about the artist Iris Low

18 Nov 2013: THINK CAPOEIRA: Buy a children picture, we send them the money directlyBrazil: Children In Salvador de Bahia, Urugai. We did a workshop there and told them picture capoeira and capoeira in your life. Some of them went to the old alagados to take pictures of the destroying of their homes and the rebuild of a new town, knowlingly that their parents never would be able to pay the new rent.Do not despair, Think Capoeira they want to say.
Links: THINK CAPOEIRA;

03 Nov 2013: Chris van den Broeke in the window showThis is night photography. So, there is no framing necessary. Each print (only 6 prints are sold from each photo, whatever the color or format) is a lambdacolor print on dibond 3 mm, with an alu hanging system on the back.

04 Oct 2013: Monica Forrer from Switzerland at Thijs galleryMonica Forrer still on show at our partner gallery at Dikker&Thijs, Prinsengracht 444, Amsterdam.
Ending exhibition December 19th.
Links: ; see more about the artist

24 Sep 2013: Patries Landwehr with Automotion in the windowgalleryEmotions of human beings and society are topics that are frequently used in the projects of Patries Landwehr.Currently she works on a big project that she calls Automotion. In this project she tries to express hidden emotions of the individual.
Links: ; www.joetsart.nl

20 Feb 2007: An extreme cup of teaLee Kyu Hyung is a professor in 'Ceramic Studies' . His continuous search for new glazes has made him one of the most versatile Korean ceramic artists. Apart from ceramic paintings and sculptures he has designed ingenious sets for the drinking of pu erh tea in Chinese style and other tea utensils. He has exhibited his work in Korea, Japan, China, the USA, New Zealand, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Egypt and Arps&Co at Amsterdam.
Links: ; more information:

20 Aug 2006: History Arps & CoBernardus Arps ( 1813-1896) was typesetter,printer, founder of Arps&Son Printers, Royal Purveyers in Rottterdam. He started in 1860 in Culemborg, the next step was to move to Rotterdam in 1871 to the Great Market Square.
Typsesetter was a very humble profession at the time. The beginning of the profession he learned in Haarlem at the famous Johan Enschede & Sons Printers company.
The fascinating fact is that he had developped his own learning process as a co-working trainee, at first in Bruxelles and later in Paris. That were Christian bookprinters. There is a European workpermit from this episode with his name and accompanied with an invitation letter from the printer in Paris stating he should come to France and work with them, on the condition that he would be a good and Christian young man. Already in those days there was a political hesitation in allowing working class people travel to other countries, as they might lose their job and decay to begging and would need the social care of the hosting country. (one can notice that there is not much changed in the last two centuries).
Bernardus 1 married at the age of 22 with Elisabeth Zweeres (28)and first settled in Haarlem.Their only son, also named Bernardus (2) was born in 1836. He married with Catherina Pardij. See:
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardus_Arps
My great grand parents got 7 children.They all lived in Rotterdam.
My grandfather William Arps started an Art-Gallery, annex Printers in the Nobelstraat 4 in The Hague togehter with his sister, Jet Arps. The grand opening was in 9 november 1902. This was the reason to name the gallery Arps&Co.They also became Royal Purveyers.
Jet Arps was a talented painter and designer. She finished the Royal Academy of Arts in 1900, she never married.The artgallery brought many equisit articles on the market, and also the oil-paintings of their famous brother Bernardus Arps (3), member of the Dutch School. Bernardus Arps has studied at the Academy of Rotterdam, where he was assigned a silver medal for drawing. Later he studied in Delft, with the master A.le Comte. After a long working period as a typesetter at his fathers printíng company, he left the city of Rotterdam to live in Arnhem in 1893 where he stayed till 1898. Het lived 15 years in The Hague. He became a member of the Pulchri Studio.
My grandfather married in 1910 at the age of 31 with Frederica Hoekstra.(24), a referend’s daughter from Friesland who had gone through a terrible period of loosing both her parents and three brothers.

The gallery Arps&Co offered them an extreme interesting period of life, in the middle of the The Haugue establishment. Though financially they didn’t do very well in the crisis episode (the 30th) and 3 of their children went to the Indies to try to earn their own living, none of them comming back from the second world war. That is how my father took over the Arpsgallery in 1953, by that time changed into a stationary shop, annex printer, still Royal Purveyers.
Links: ;

21 Mar 2005: Pat AndreaMen and women in provocative situations are playing the main part in the work of Pat Andrea. He is connected as a professor at the Paris University of Fine Arts Paris and lives both in Buenos Aires and The Hague. He exposed in over 80 galleries all over the world.
His work is to define as magic realism that sprouts from a group of Dutch artists in the sixties.
Links: ; see more

01 Mar 2005: Think Peace children picture peace in AmsterdamJust for our own pleasure we re-edit the exibition of the children-photographers that started 25 oktober 2003 as an Open Source project in The Baarsjes in Amsterdam. Childen aged 9 to 12 received for one day a Nikon instant camera and took pictures of their urban environment in search for peace in the area.
The children received a shorty and compact explenation on photo-techniques form the professionals Robert Rizzo and
Lars Keppel.
Not all was understood so clearly as came out at the end of the day: Desmond had told Basma that she would find the pictures ready printed when she would open her camera. That's how Basma had to redo all her work with a fresh roll. Maryan enjoyed the photographing so much that she did the shooting twice. After all there came out beautiful results double taken.

The expo travelled along various places in the city.
The project was sponsored by Jantje Beton Foundation, Lumino Fotovaklaboratorium, KPMG Make it Happen Fund, Kral Super Foto, Woningbedrijf Amsterdam, Stadsdeel de Baarsjes.
Links: ; see more

23 Jun 2004: Children Paint LoveChildren age 9 - 12 living in the Baarsjes, Amsterdam are invited to paint in acrylic their impressions of love in the Baarsjes. The workshop will take place at the end of August 2004. Paintings will be exposed in public windows in the neighbourhood.
Links: ;